There are many circumstances where it is absolutely essential to assure a clean or sterile environment. An obvious example is in hospitals, and especially in operating rooms of hospitals. In the operating room setting, it is the wound site of the patient where sterility is of most importance. Unfortunately, in current approaches, the most critical area of concern, the wound site, is not given primary attention. Rather, current approaches have been just the opposite by giving attention to the condition of the operating room in general in creating a “clean” room without paying special attention to the wound site. This can result in the wound site actually being the area of least cleanliness because it is at the wound site that the most activity occurs during a surgical procedure that both sets contaminants airborne and blocks clean air access to the wound site.
Contaminated particles can be made up of particulates from any substance, such as dirt and dust, and can include bacterial and virus nebular matter transported either through the air from multiple sources or by touch on surfaces. Neither source of transport can be ignored. The same contaminates can pass from air to surface many times over the course of existence. The present invention addresses the need for establishing a clean air environment at a targeted site, such as, for example, a surgically sterile wound site of a patient.